


it's a dream

by spottswood (canyouseemyspark)



Series: Modern Love [1]
Category: Red Dead Redemption (Video Games)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Romantic Comedy, Character(s) of Color, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, F/M, Fluff, Gen, M/M, Romantic Friendship, Slow Romance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-04-07
Updated: 2019-04-07
Packaged: 2020-01-06 12:34:36
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,290
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18388562
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/canyouseemyspark/pseuds/spottswood
Summary: this is the first multi-chaptered work in a planned series which remixes popular romantic comedies with poc. first up: javier & when harry met sally. each chapter represents a different stage in his relationship."The first time we met we hated each other.""You didn’t hate me, I hated you. And the second time we met, you didn’t even remember me.""I did too, I remembered you. The third time we met, we became friends.""We were friends for a long time.""And then we weren’t.""And then we fell in love.""Three months later we got married.""It only took three months.""Twelve years and three months."





	it's a dream

Javier is a mess the first time he meets Mina.

It embarrasses him to think of it now, but he just didn’t care much for his appearance when he was in college. His family never had the money to waste, and so his mom picked out most of his clothes for him from clothing drives held at their church or thrift shops in their neighborhood. When he started at Cal, his sister tried to talk to him about going to get a professional haircut and learning how to groom his facial hair but he met Sofia his first semester there and she didn’t seem to care how he looked, and so he didn’t either.

He studies music, a hard sell for his immigrant parents, and Sofia studies politics. They meet in an elective and she teaches him about social justice, introduces him to activists living in the Bay Area, gives him books that allow him to think about the poverty and repression of his childhood in a different way.

It’s the best four years of his life, he’s convinced of it. Sofia is his first everything - first kiss, first girlfriend, first lover - and when he gets into Julliard for graduate school and has to move to New York, he almost turns it down so he can stay in San Francisco with her. She encourages him though, in her encouraging but forceful way, makes promises about how they’re going to make the long distance work until she finds a job out there too, then they can get engaged.

She helps him find a ride out to New York. He’s accumulated a lot of stuff over the past few years and he can’t afford to repurchase furniture when he gets out there, so she connects him with another student, just graduated, who’s driving out there for work. Mina. Javier is shy, protective over his personal space, but he starts to coordinate with her over text and she says if they drive through the night and take turns, they’ll be there in two days.

Saying goodbye to Sofia feels like the hardest thing he’s had to do. He doesn’t notice Mina’s car at first, stands outside his apartment locked in an embrace that is interrupted by the honking of a horn.

That’s the first time he sees her, sitting in the front seat of an old black van, trying to hide her annoyance behind a smile. The back of the van is unlocked and she doesn’t come out to help as he and Sofia spend the next hour loading up his things, just sits in the driver’s seat and fiddles with the radio.

He is so enraptured by Sofia that he isn’t able to see the beauty of other women; he just remembers how well dressed she is for a road trip. When he gets in the car, sweaty and exhausted, he notices that she’s wearing a loose, red silky long-sleeved ankle-length dress and a pair of grey suede boots that peek out underneath it. He feels self conscious in his ratty outfit, sweatpants, sweatshirt and beat up sneakers.

Sofia leans in through his window.

“Hey Mina. Thank you so much for doing this.” She looks at him, “Javier, call me.”

“I’ll call you as soon as I get there,” He promises.

“Call me from the road.”

“I’ll call you before that.”

“I love you.”

“I love you.”

“I miss you already.”

Mina presses the gas and the car lurches forward suddenly. She gives him an apologetic look but doesn’t stop. He’s already annoyed and takes out his phone to text Sofia that he misses her already too.

“Sorry about that,” Her smile is dimpled, on the left side of her face.

“No problem. So, how do you know Sofia?” He’d never seen her before, he was certain of it.

“We met in a writing class freshman year when she was thinking of declaring a journalism major,” Mina explains. With one hand on the steering wheel, she uses the other to fish into a backpack that sits between them. It takes her a beat too long, which makes Javier nervous about the level of attention she was giving to the road. Finally, she pulls out a pack of cigarettes and takes one out of the pack with her mouth. “You mind if I smoke?” She asks. She doesn’t wait for him to reply, takes a lighter out of her back pocket and lights up.

He does mind.

“I didn’t know even Sofia had a boyfriend. How long have you been together?” She asks.

“Four years.”

“Wow,” She says, flatly, neither impressed not really caring.

“What about you?” Javier asks, mostly out of politeness, “Are you dating anyone?”

Mina shakes her head. Her hair is black, straight, and short. It dances with the motion. “Not anymore. College relationships never really last after graduation anyway.” She can tell he’s offended. “No offense. I mean, I’m sure things will work out with you two.”

“They will,” Javier insists.  _God, he was such an idiot back then._

Their first argument is about the phone charger.

There’s only one USB port and for the entire first leg, her phone is plugged in. They’re using it to navigate and she has it perched on the dashboard so he can see that it’s at 100% but when he asks to use it, she tells him to wait his turn. No amount of reasoning will convince her to turn it over. When he asks her what percent she’s at to force her to admit that it’s fully charged, she says it doesn’t matter because it’s her charger.

Their second argument is when she comes onto him, or he thinks she comes onto him. She manages to get him all twisted up that by the end of it, he can’t tell anymore.

She doesn’t fall asleep right away when he takes over the night shift, sits twisted sideways in the passenger seat so she’s looking at him. It’s unnerving.

“You know, you’re a very attractive person,” She says suddenly.

He looks at her out of the corner of his eye. “Thank you?”

“Sofia didn’t say how attractive you are. Empirically, you  _are_   _attractive_.”

Javier doesn’t really want to look at her face but he can hear her smiling, thinks he can see where she’s getting at. It’s disconcerting, throws him off entirely. He isn’t used to getting female attention, other than Sofia’s, and for a moment, he doesn’t know how to react.

“I’m dating Sofia,” He says, finally.

“So?”

“So, I’m dating her. And you’re supposed to be her friend.”

“So?”

“So, you’re coming on to me!”

“No I wasn’t. Can’t I just say you’re attractive without it being a come-on? Even if it was, what do you want me to do about it? I take it back, ok? I take it back.” She sighs, as though she’s the one annoyed by him.

There’s a third, fourth and fifth argument before they make it to New York. She makes a comment about rich people who downplay their privilege for progressive brownie points, which seems like a dig at Sofia, and turns into a fight about politics. He asks her to use her blinkers more to signal when she’s changing lanes, which turns into a back and forth bickering about whose driving is more terrifying.

When they arrive in the city,  _finally_ , he’s all out of steam.

This time, she at least gets out of the van to help him unload his things in front of his new apartment building.

“Thanks for the ride.”

“Yeah. it was... interesting,” She smiles a dimpled smile, but looks tired too.

“It was nice knowing you.”

They shake hands.

“Have a nice life, Javier.”

“Yeah, you too.”


End file.
